Influence of Post-Harvest Technology on Food Security in Narok East sub-County, Kenya

Crop yields have decreased globally due to declining investments in research and infrastructure, which are preconditions for food security. The study established the Influence of Post-Harvest technology on Food Security in Narok East sub-County, Kenya, which is a rural sub-County in Narok County. A descriptive research design was adopted by the study. The target population is comprised of 25078 households distributed proportionally in the four wards and is involved in different farming activities. A sample of 378 household heads was determined using the sample size determination formula. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire and an interview guide. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics of frequencies, percentages and inferential statistics of correlation, ANOVA and regression analysis. The results were presented using frequency and percentages, tables and charts. The relationship between the variables was tested at a significant level of 0.05. The results show that there is a strong, positive and significant correlation between post-harvest technology and food security in the sub-County (r = .606** and p-value = 0.000). This implies that the relationship between the variables is very significant hence post-harvest technology is a strong determinant of food security in the study area. The study concludes that ANOVA model indicated a very significant and statistical relationship between post-harvest technology and food security. The study is beneficial to all the stakeholders in rural areas in Kenya who have consistently experienced food insecurity as it will provide appropriate data that will be used for policymaking.

Rethinking Mental Health Literacy Programmes For Enhanced Help-Seeking Behaviour In Young Male Adults

Educating and sensitization through mental health literacy (MHL) programmes is germane to raising awareness, reducing stigma towards help-seeking, and ultimately improving help-seeking behaviours in young male adults. This theoretical paper problematises various trajectories and approaches that are engaged with; in providing mental health literacy to enhance young male adults’ help-seeking behaviour. It further advances the critical pedagogical (CP) approach as an alternative trajectory for this task. This was achieved by positioning mental health literacy as critical engagement that relies on transformative education in order to enhance help-seeking behvaiour. This article discusses the relevance of some prominent themes in critical pedagogy to the design of mental health literacy programmes for enhanced help-seeking. It, therefore, submits that for any meaningful improvement and change to take place in the ideologies, beliefs, and attitudes of young male adults towards help-seeking, a critical pedagogical approach should be engaged, with believed that this approach will facilitate critical dialogues, reflexive thinking, and participatory learning processes. It is anticipated that embedding the CP principles into the design of MHL programmes would assist practitioners and health educators to produce transformational change in behaviour of young male adults towards help-seeking.

Teacher characteristics and the Use of ICT in Rural Secondary Schools of Bwera Sub County, Kasese District, Uganda

This study investigated the relationship between teachers’ characteristics and their use of ICT in teaching in rural secondary schools located in Bwera Sub County, Kasese District of Uganda. Bwera Sub County is a hard-to-reach rural area in western Uganda. Specifically, the study examined whether teacher characteristics, namely, teachers perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and teacher ICT competence, influenced teachers’ use of ICT in teaching with the secondary schools. Using the correlational research design, data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire on a sample of 127 school teachers. Descriptive results revealed that teachers rated their use of ICT and perceived competence as poor, rated ICT's usefulness as good, and their use of ICT as fair. Regression analysis revealed that perceived usefulness, ease of use, and ICT competence had a positive and significant influence on ICT use in teaching and learning. It was concluded that perceived usefulness is a prerequisite for teachers’ use of ICT, perceived ease of use is imperative for the use of ICT, and competence is essential for the use of ICT. Therefore, it was recommended that in rural secondary schools, the Ministry of Education and headteachers should provide awareness training to teachers about the usefulness of IC, train teachers to use ICT, and develop their ICT competence.

Cooperative Society’s Fund Creation and Economic Strength Promotion among Teachers in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

This paper examines various means of funding cooperative societies owned by teachers to promote members economic strength. This is a self-financing body with no grant or support from the government or agencies. This paper sought to identify various means used in generating funds by cooperative societies and how this has helped promote members' economic strength. One hundred and forty-five (145) members of eight (8) societies participated in the study. The instruments used in collecting data were; Fund Creation Checklist (FCC) and Members Economic Strength Questionnaire (MESQ). Data were analysed using Descriptive Statistics and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). Result revealed an insignificant negative relationship between fund creation and members economic strength promotion with (r= -0.085, > .05). Thus, it shows that it is not certain that the fund generated by the cooperative society solely accounted for the promotion of members’ economic strength. It was concluded that cooperative societies and members should engage in viable businesses that will yield high profits, and proper fund management should be of priority for society and members.

Interrogating the Causes, Effects and Societal Responses to Rape and Child-Defilement in Nigeria

Nigeria’s social landscape has been inundated by an alarming spate of rape and child defilement cases, so much more that there is hardly a week without media reports of rape in the country. Records released by the Nigeria Police Force shows that a total of seven hundred and seventeen cases of rape and child defilement were recorded in the first five months of the year 2020. More alarming is the defilement of minors and underage children by adults. The foregoing raises concerns and the need to interrogate the causes of alarming cases of rape and defilement of minors in Nigeria. The mixed methods research approach was adopted to generate both primary and secondary data. For the primary data, an online questionnaire was designed and administered to a total of two hundred and nine Nigerians across various sectors and regions of the country. Besides, six (6) key informants, each from the Ministry of Women, Legal Department, National Human Rights Commission, NGO, religious leader and media practitioners, were interviewed. On the other hand, government reports, gazettes, journal and newspaper articles were used to generate secondary data. Findings show that defilement of minors in Nigeria is perceived from a socio-cultural perspective as an avenue for money rituals. Other causes include mental disorders of perpetrators, alcoholism and substance abuse. Effects of such acts are physical and psychological. Recommendations on ways of curbing the menace include life sentences, name shame of perpetrators, and strict enforcement of existing laws prohibiting rape and defilement in the country.

Latrine Utilisation and Associated Factors in Southern Ethiopia: Evidence from Selected Households in Holte Town, Ethiopia

Globally, over 2.5 billion people are still without access to improved sanitation. Almost a third of the world’s population suffers on a daily basis from a lack of access to a clean and functioning toilet. People are obliged to defecate in the open due to a lack of toilet facilities. Poor usage of latrines and excreta disposal are contributing factors to a high number of morbidity and mortality, especially among under-five children. Health improvement comes from proper sanitation facilities, not simply because of their mere physical presence. Therefore, this study assessed latrine utilisation and associated factors among households in Holte town of Derashe, especial Woreda, southern Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 356 households using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and checklist. An SPSS software Version.23 was used for analysis, and descriptive statistics and association among factors were finally calculated. From total respondents, 316 (88.76%) were using Latrine for 24 hours (good utilisation), 29 (8.1%) daily and the remaining 11 (3.0%) rarely (poor utilisation). Family members in each household were identified as using Latrine together. From the study respondents who have under-five children, 189 (53.1%) of the households do not allow their children to use Latrine. In conclusion, there is somewhat good latrine utilisation but poor hand washing practice after visiting Latrine in the study area. So, strengthening health information dissemination, appropriate technical support, and multi-sectorial collaboration should be key factors to improve the proper utilisation of latrines and handwashing practices.

The ‘Locals’ and Local Government Bureaucracy: Implication on the Attainment of Developmental Goals in Nigeria

This study examined the effect of the exclusion of community representatives (locals), local traditional structures and values from the local government bureaucracy and its implication on attaining developmental goals in selected States in Nigeria. The study was situated within the ambits of the Weberian and Marxian bureaucratic theories to consider the subject matter and generate analysis. The study adopted the survey research design with a mixed-method approach to generate both primary and secondary data. Using the multi-stage sampling technique, a total number of nine electoral wards across the three states of Bayelsa, Edo and Rivers were covered. One thousand one hundred ninety (1,190) copies of a self-constructed questionnaire were administered in the study areas. The figure was arrived at with the use of the Taro Yamane method of calculation. Besides, in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants in the selected states. Quantitative data were analysed using the Spearman’s Rho Correlation Coefficient, while qualitative data were subjected to both thematic and descriptive methods of data analysis. It was found out that community participation and the inclusion of traditional structures and values in the local government bureaucracy could enhance the attainment of developmental goals at the local government levels. It was recommended that the National and State Houses of Assembly in Nigeria amend existing local government laws to restructure the local government bureaucracy to include community representatives at the local government bureaucracies with traditional institutions given specific roles.

Trend Analysis in Sugarcane Growth in Mumias Sugar Belt, Western Kenya; for the Period 1985-2015

The study was carried out to examine trends in the output and acreage in the Mumias Sugar belt from the period 1985-2015. We used secondary data collected from Mumais Sugar Company records for the period 1985-2015 for the study. The trend analysis of sugarcane production in the Mumias Sugar Belt is important, where sugarcane is the major cash crop and absorbs a majority of the agrarian population in the region. The study used the expert modeler, an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), to predict the output. The forecast period was 2016 through March 2021 and employed two scenarios: I) forecast with +2 harvesting age predictor modification and ii) forecast with +10 hectares predictor modification. The predicted value showed good agreement with the observed values from the series plot, indicating that the model has a good predictive ability. The application of the model revealed that the results in the prediction tables show that, in each of the six forecasted quarters, increasing the harvesting age by two months is expected to generate about 4.52 more tons of yields per hectare than increasing area harvested by 10 hectares that would decrease the yield by 0.01 tons per hectare. The study recommends research and development on sugarcane varieties that mature early, making sugarcane-based Agri- enterprises and sustainable. In addition, Mumias Sugar Company should seek profitable techniques to increase the recovery per cent, and farmers seek good management practices to increase the efficiency of the sugarcane farms in the sugar belt.

Spatial Variability of Poverty and Primary Health Facilities in Rural Areas of Ayedaade Local Government, Osun State, Nigeria

This paper examined the distribution pattern of health centres to determine the poverty level due to spatial variability of accessibility to health care facilities in rural areas of Ayedaade Local Government, Osun State, Nigeria. Three hundred sixty-eight household heads from 4,539 households in 25 selected villages were sampled based on Slovin’s principle. Buffer and average nearest neighbourhood analyses were performed in ArcGIS 10.4 software to determine the distance covered to the nearest health centre and the spatial location pattern of health centres. $1.90 per day international poverty line, 5 Likert Scale, ANOVA, and correlation were used. The inverse relationship at r = - 0.447 revealed that the more the poverty, the less the poor's capability to cater to their health service. It calls for some forms of intervention by the government to reduce health services cost for rural dwellers.

Rural Teachers’ Teaching of Algebraic Functions Through a Commognitive Lens

Rural contexts and their schools have continuously been overlooked by researchers of mathematics education in South Africa. This is despite the assumption that the educational landscape may vary markedly in rural areas compared to urban and township areas which have been solely researched in the post-apartheid dispensation. To address the dearth of mathematics education research located within South Africa's rural contexts, the study explored five Grade 10 rural mathematics teachers' discourses and approaches of teaching algebraic functions with five teachers from five different school sites. This qualitative multiple case study, using Sfard's commognitive theory, draws attention to rural mathematics teachers' classroom practices and views about the teaching of algebraic functions which is unexamined in the South African context. Three data generation tools were used to gain insight into teachers' discourses and approaches while teaching the topic. These are individual semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and Video-Stimulated Recall Interviews (VSRI). Research findings focus primarily on the data generated through classroom observations. To analyse the data, I use Sfard's commognitive theory to give meaning to teachers' classroom practices. Focusing on the distinction between two tenets of commognitive theory, ritual and explorative routines, the findings demonstrate that four participating teachers acted in an extremely ritualised way. The other teacher was more explorative in her classroom observable actions. The findings illuminate that teachers need to move more towards the participationist approach during teaching to enable them to think, observe, and communicate about mathematical objects that commognitively link more with explorative routines.